All posts filed under: Japan

UFC 144: Edgar vs. Henderson – Saitama Super Arena, Tokyo

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While in Tokyo, I saw an Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the Saitama Super Arena. Ultimate Fighting is a mixed martial arts competition where fighters can win by knockout, tap out, or points. The fighters come from a range of disciplines including striking styles such as boxing, karate and kickboxing along with submission styles that include aikido, judo, and wrestling. Fighters compete within their own weight class, but fighters of one style can be paired against any other style. This means you get matches between boxers that want to keep their distance and use punching power against submission fighters that want to take the fight to the mat and bend limbs in the wrong direction until their opponent taps out. The bouts take place in a octagon with wire walls rather than ropes. You definitely get the feeling you’re watching something not far removed from gladiatorial combat. The stadium atmosphere, however, was more friendly and reverential than bloodthirsty. The Japanese audience clapped and cheered for fighters from all countries, the greatest cheers were for combatants …

Brand it like Beckham

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Beckham’s popularity continues in Japan. Once idolized for his ability to curve a soccer ball with pinpoint accuracy, he now seems to be famous for being famous. In the middle of Shibuya, five giant versions of Beckham stare down at the passersby. Tommy Lee Jones, holding a can of Boss Coffee, is a mere mortal in comparison.

Hardball with Ryukyu Bus Kotsu – 琉球バス交通

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At the start of the year, I wrote a post about being involved in a minor traffic accident. A coach decided to merge into my lane and, although I wasn’t moving and beeping my horn, the coach scraped the fender and bumper of my car. It’s annoying to have to fill in paperwork, get your car fixed, and drive around a loaner for a week or two, but accidents happen. In the previous blog post I wrote: The one issue that does remain is exactly whose insurance will be paying for the repairs. You might assume that the bus company’s insurance would pay for everything, but in Japan blame is rarely attributed entirely to one driver. If the discussion between insurance companies results in me being given a token 10% of the blame, my insurance will pay for 10% of the damage to my car and the bus, and next year’s insurance premium will go up. A couple of weeks ago, I got the accident summary from my insurance company ( J.A. ) it said …

Japanese Alcohol Free Beer

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In Okinawa most people travel by car, the nearest train station is in Kagoshima, 500 miles away. Many Okinawans drive to a bar, and then use a daiko service to bring both them and their car home at the end of the night. (A daiko service is similar to a taxi service, but with two drivers. Driver A chauffeurs you home in your own car while driver B follows behind to collect driver A.) The cost of using a daiko service, the health benefits of reducing alcohol consumption, and a crackdown on people who drink and drive are some of the possible reasons for the growth in popularity of alcohol free beers. The other night I had a few friends over to test the various alcohol free beers and the results were pretty conclusive. Four beers were sampled: Kirin Free, Sapporo Premium Alcohol Free, Suntory All-Free, and Kirin 休む日のAlc. 0.00 %. The Sapporo Premium Alcohol Free was by far the most popular, with Shawn even stating “it actually tastes like beer.” As a final bonus, …

New Year, New Camera

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For many years I’ve been putting off shooting underwater. My Optio W60 is a great waterproof compact camera, but it doesn’t have the depth rating for scuba diving or the image quality for professional use. I looked into an underwater housing for the 645D, but there were none available off the shelf and a custom built housing would be many thousands of dollars. (It would also be like scuba diving with a submarine.) Ikelite, perhaps the biggest manufacturer of underwater housings, has however just released a housing for the Pentax K5/K7 cameras. For many reasons (that I’ll explain in future posts) I decided to buy a K5, a 10-17mm fish-eye lens and the Ikelite housing. The housing is on its way from the States as we speak, while the K5 and lens arrived a couple of days ago. Bear’s friend Ref posed for a few shoots so I could test out the fish-eye lens. Underwater photography is going to be an exciting challenge. Already have plans to shoot a lost city, a few sharks, and …

Skymark Airlines

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Skymark is Japan’s budget airline. Domestic flights in Japan are expensive and if you live in Okinawa they’re the only realistic option for getting up to mainland Japan. I’m visiting Tokyo for a few days in February so I thought I’d give Skymark a try. Hopefully I’ll save a bit of money, and at the least it will allow me to advise people better when giving travel advice. I wanted to fly Naha – Haneda return, so I visited the Skymark website which has an English section. A flight from Naha to Haneda ranges in price from 9,800 yen to 24,800 yen depending on how early you book. The key thing to know is that you can book a maximum of two months in advance. Bookings start from 9.30AM and due to demand you have to book at exactly 9.30AM two months previously to get the 9,800 or 10,800 yen tickets.  I know this as this morning I entered my information at 9.32, selected the available web bargain flight and by the time I’d filled …

Kurama Fire Festival

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This year’s Kurama Fire Festival was a mix of rain, mud and flames. I liked the costumes, but the degree of pyromania  and the level of drunken chaos was pretty tame compared to other fire festivals I’ve been to in Japan. I think the close proximity to Kyoto, and therefore the entire Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe metropolis means you get too many people for what is in reality quite a small event in a very small town. The big plus however is that the Kurama Fire Festival takes place on October 22nd the same day as Kyoto’s Jidai Matsuri. Watch the Jidai Matsuri in the afternoon then head over to Kurama for a smokey evening. This year the Jidai Matsuri was postponed by a day, but I wasn’t leaving Kyoto until I’d shot a samurai.

Umeda Sky Building

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Flew up to mainland Japan on Friday night. Landed at KIX then got the bus to Umeda in Osaka. Before heading on to Kyoto, I stopped in at Yodobashi Camera to get a new lens case and then took another look at the Umeda Sky Building. Exposure was about 15 seconds which causes the blurry clouds. I set the white balance to tungsten to give it the blue futuristic feel.